[#SomeChanges Suggestion] Remove rating requirements on most arena gear

[innatez]

Description

Currently, all deadly gear has rating requirements. My suggestion is to remove rating requirements on all gear other than deadly shoulders and weapon, similar to TBC classic. This is a step towards promoting more participation in arena, which benefits the system as a whole (faster queues, easier games for new players, easier to find partners to play with).

With the current participation in arena and the rating system which starts from 0, even the lowest rating requirement (gloves - 1400) is as high as the challenger cutoff 2v2. The implication is that to attain their first piece of deadly gear the player must be within the top 35% of players. Other items such as the deadly helm (1950) and shoulders (2000) are attainable only above the duelist cutoff (top 3% of players).

These rating requirements are one of the factors driving a feedback loop of low arena participation. Newer players face a steep learning curve and barrier to entry stepping into arena, are unable to make meaningful progress towards attaining gear, and give up. As these newer players give up, the average skill of the arena population goes up and the barrier to entry increases even further.

The rating requirements also discourage players by putting them at a natural disadvantage to other PvPers which have already obtained the gear; while the actual difference between Hateful and Deadly gear is not that large, the perceived disadvantage is quite discouraging.

Overall, removal of rating requirements on the majority of deadly gear would be a step in the right direction towards promoting participation in arena. This is healthy for the game as a whole, giving another viable activity for players to participate in between their raid lockouts.

Other factors which contribute to low arena participation, but are more complex to address: -The current point formula has the advantage of helping lower rated players attain similar points to higher rated players (i.e. levels the playing field), but it discourages participation overall. There is little incentive to play arena more than 10 games a week in 5v5 once hitting about 1300, unless you want to compete for titles or feel you are making meaningful progress towards gear rating requirements. Previously, there was incentive to climb rating for real increases in points. Perhaps rather than rating requirements on gear, there could be other incentives to playing in arena (e.g. pets or mounts or other vanity items attached to the arena achievements). -It can be difficult to find arena partners. Some solutions might be a solo queue function and/or cross realm arena queueing. -iLVLs on PvP weapons (and some armor) are less than PvE equivalents (213 vs 226). Given the stat distribution, these weapons would not be BIS in PvE in most circumstances with an iLVL buff to 226, but might act as a meaningful alternative to encourage arena participation (and would also mean pvpers are not forced into PvE for BIS weapons).

[Jgrenier91]

It's crazy that the first piece of gear's requirement is above the challenger cutoff. That makes things difficult for newer players.

[Kickp]

There's a reason there are 3 tiers of arena gear. Those who cannot attain rating for deadly gear can get the savage / hateful gear with no requirements.

There is no case where being unable to equip those last few deadly pieces over hateful is what is holding someone back from getting 1600 for their chest and having some goals to work towards for new players isn't a bad idea either. I think the system is fine as is.

[watchyoursixx]

While I agree with some elements of this and personally think you should start out at a higher rating than 0, the way it's currently set up is basically free points until 1100-1200. All your have to do is win games and you lose no rating when losing. Literally anyone playing arena can achieve 1200 if you just play enough games. Depending how many you win will determine how long it takes but generally you should reach it by about 14 wins.

I don't know specifics on when you start to decay, or if you lose 50 games in a row then win 14 if you would still get the same amount of points. But regardless, it's not really a barrier of entry to start at 0.. it just has a psychological effect being so far from the target rating.

Consider as well that the top rating in tbc pushed all the way to 3200 or so, where the top cutoffs were much higher than they currently are. Is that a product of the first season starting everyone off at 0? I personally don't know how it started in tbc so I can't say for sure but I'd suspect that as the seasons progress the rating cutoffs will be higher.

Maybe just this season needs to be looked at?

More to the point though, I agree the gear availability is much greater than tbc ever was. So I think it's fine, deadly gear is mostly a minor upgrade this season. The weapons aren't worth compared to pve weps. So really only thing you benefit from higher rating is +3 to +9 of a few stats each piece, 2 of which can be obtained from VoA25 (which is a bit rng but still possible), and some off pieces.